Luther’s Small Catechism has been memorized by generations of Lutheran confirmation students. But while some manage to remember the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer, fewer remember Luther’s explanations. Fewer still read Luther’s Large Catechism for a more thorough treatment. The density of his language renders his insightful explanations inaccessible to many Lutherans today.

Martin Luther explained the essentials of the faith to his European contemporaries almost five hundred years ago. Karen Goltz has brought those explanations into the twenty-first century, with language and examples that illuminate the importance of the Catechism to everyday life.